Materials to prepare in advance

• The Enthusiastic Newcomer: As a new team member, you are eager to prove your value. You participate intensely and speak frequently, doing everything possible to ensure your contributions are visible to the group.
• The Checked-Out Colleague: You are no longer invested in this team. You’ve already applied for a new position and just received word that you got the job! Your mind is already out the door.
• Emotional colleague: You are completely distracted during the meeting because you are secretly in love with another team member. Your focus is entirely on them rather than the task at hand.
• The Meeting Skeptic: You believe this meeting is a total waste of time. You are frustrated by the lack of productivity and feel that the decision could have been handled more efficiently through a simple email.
• Be yourself: Behave as you normally would in an online team meeting for trainers.

• The competent facilitator: Your goal is to lead a productive, inclusive meeting by ensuring every voice is heard and a good surprise is organized. You encourage quiet participants to speak, and skillfully manage time to reach a clear group decision. You are not sure about what exact decisions should be made.
• The Poor Connection: You have a very weak internet signal. To simulate this, you must omit every third word whenever you speak, making it difficult for the group to follow your ideas.
• The Enthusiastic Newcomer: As a new team member, you are eager to prove your value. You participate intensely and speak frequently, doing everything possible to ensure your contributions are visible to the group.
• The Checked-Out Colleague: You are no longer invested in this team. You’ve already applied for a new position and just received word that you got the job! Your mind is already out the door.
• Emotional colleague: You are completely distracted during the meeting because you have a conflict/you are secretly in love with another team member. Your focus is entirely on them rather than the task at hand.

• Facilitator: You are leading this meeting. You just want to present the options and finish early without discussion. You keep others muted.

• The silenced enthusiast: Your boss is facilitating this meeting and has muted everyone. Because of this, you have no opportunity to contribute or share your ideas verbally.You are highly engaged and eager to share your ideas, but you are stuck on mute. You keep typing your suggestions into the chat, yet the facilitator completely ignores your messages and fails to give you the floor.
• Distracted: You distract yourself with other things (reading your messages, playing games, surfing the net).
• The Time-Pressed Professional: You are overwhelmed by an urgent deadline and feel this meeting is a total waste of time. Your focus is entirely on your other work, so you constantly check the clock and pressure the group to hurry up and finish.
• Be yourself: Behave as you normally would in an online team meeting for trainers.

• The competent facilitator: Your goal is to lead a productive, inclusive meeting by ensuring every voice is heard and the agenda stays on track. You encourage quiet participants to speak, and skillfully manage time to reach a clear group decision. No one has a camera in this meeting (the participants sit with their backs turned).

• The Enthusiastic Newcomer: As a new team member, you are eager to prove your value. You participate intensely and speak frequently, doing everything possible to ensure your contributions are visible to the group. No one has a camera in this meeting (the participants sit with their backs turned).
• The Checked-Out Colleague: You are no longer invested in this team. You’ve already applied for a new position and just received word that you got the job! Your mind is already out the door. No one has a camera in this meeting (the participants sit with their backs turned).
• Emotional colleague: You are completely distracted during the meeting because you have a conflict with another team member. Your focus is entirely on them rather than the task at hand.No one has a camera in this meeting (the participants sit with their backs turned).

• The Meeting Skeptic: You believe this meeting is a total waste of time. You are frustrated by the lack of productivity and feel that the decision could have been handled more efficiently through a simple email. No one has a camera in this meeting (the participants sit with their backs turned).

• Step 1. Preparation: Prepare four sets of role cards, each corresponding to a different condition or behavioral constraint.
• Step 2.Grouping: Divide the participants into groups of 4–5 people.
• Step 3. General Instructions: Brief the entire group with the following prompt:
• "Your task is to role-play and improvise a 3-minute online meeting. The goal of this meeting is to decide on a surprise celebration for the organization’s leader, who is not present. You will each receive a role card—please do not share your instructions with anyone else. You have one minute to prepare for your role."
• Step 4. Performance: Each group performs their meeting one after the other. While one group performs, the others act as observers. After each performance, give the observers 1 minute to write down their notes.
• Step 5. Reflection & Debrief:

• Contributing actively to team tasks
• Being willing to take on responsibility
• Encouraging and involving other team members
• Learning with and from others
• Being aware of the team processes and how they affect the team’s effectiveness